St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-06-04

fastened to the pole between the morse:
so when they went ahead the SWORD
thrust and when they turned around i
would NOW down. The armies carried
flags beautifully embroidered. Tribe
| of Judah carried a flag embroidered
with lion; tribe of Reuben, EN-
broidered with man; tribe of Dan
embroidered with cherubim. The noise
of the host as they moved on was over
whelming. What with the clatter OF
shields and the rumbling of wheels anC
the shouts of the captains, and the vo
ciferation of the entire host, the prophet
says 1t was like the roaring of the sea
Because the arts of war have been ad
vancing all these years you are not tC
conclude that these armies of olden
times were an uncomfortable mob.
could quote you four or five passages OF
Scripture showing you that they were
thoroughly drilled; they marched step
to step, shoulder to shoulder, or, as my
texts express it, they were Fifty thou
sand which could keep rank" and Every
one could sling stones at hair-breadth
and not miss"
Nothing could be more important than
this great National Encampment Tn
drilled troops can never stand before
those which are drilled. At time when
other nations are giving such care to
military tactics, it behooves this nation
to lack nothing in skill. We shall never
have another war between North and
South. The old decayed bone of CON
tention, American slavery, has been cast
out, although here and there a depraved
politician takes it up to see if he can
gnaw something off it. We are
floating off further and further from tn,
possibility of sectional strife, but about
foreign invasion am not so sure. Their
is absolutely no room on this continent
for any other nation. | have been across
the country again and again, and know
that we have not a half inch of groun1
for the equity foot of foreign despotism
to stand on. do not know but that a
half dozen nations, envious of our pros
perity, may want to give us a wrestle
During our civil war there were two or
three nations that could hardly keep
their hands off us. 1t is very easy to
pick national quarrels, and if our nation
escapes it much longer it will be the eX-
ception. If foreign foe should come
we want men like those of 1912 and like
those who fought on both sides in 1862
We want them all up and down the coast,
Pulaski and Fort Sumter in the same
chorus of thunder as Fort LAFAYETTE and
Fort Hamilton-men who will not only
know how to fight, but how to die.
When such time comes, if it ever does
come, the generations on the stage of
action will say: MY country will care
asylums for the orphans in the civil
my dust as it honors those
sacrifice, and once year at any rate, on
Decoration Day, shall be resurrected
into the remembrance of those for whom
| died. Here go for God and my coun-
try" If foreign foe should ever come
all sectional@animosities would be oblit-
Grated. Here go our regiments into the
battle, side by side, Fifteenth New York
Volunteers, Tenth Alabama Cavalry,
Fourteenth Pennsylvania Rihemen, Tenth
Artillery, Seventh South
Carolina Sharp-shooters. have no faith
in the cry, mo North, no South, no East,
no West" Let all four sections keep
their peculiarities and their preferences,
each doing it's own work and not inter
fering with each other, each of the four
its part in the great harmony
he basso, the alto, the tenor, the soprano
N the grand march of the Union
l congratulate you, the officers and
soldiers of this National Encampment,
hat if foreign attack should at any
lime be made you would be ready, and
here would be millions of the drilled
men of North and South, like the men of
ny first text, which could keep rank, and
ike the men of my second text, that
would not miss hair breadth.
At this national drill, when thirty-one
States of the Union are represented, and |
between the decorations of the graves of |
he Southern dead, which took place a |
ew days ago, and the decorations of the
graves of the Northern dead, which shall |
axe place tomorrow, [ would stir the |
Christian patriotism and gratitude not
'nly of this soldiery here present, but
# all the people, by putting before
hem the difference between these
lines, when the soldiers of all
ections meet in peace, and the
lines when they met in contest. Con-
rast the feeling of sectional bitterness in
962 with the sectional unity in 1887. At
he first date the South had banished the
rational air, '"The Star Spangled Ban
ler," and the North had banished the
popular air of "Way Down South in
Dixie The Northern people were
mudsills" and the Southern people were
white trash" The more Southern people
we're killed in battle the better the North
liked it. The more Northern people were
illed in battle the better the South liked
T. For four years the head of Abraham
lincoln or Jefferson Davis would have
cen worth 100000 if delivered on
ither side the line. No need now, stand
1g in our pulpits and platforms, of say
1g that the North and South did not
ate each other. TO estimate how very
early they loved each other, count up
he bombshells that were hurled, and
he carbines that were loaded and
he cavalry horses that were mounted,
forth and South facing each other
II armed in the attempt to kill. The
wo sections not only marshaled all their
arthly hostilities, but tried to reach up
nd get hold of the sword of Heaven, and
be prayer of the Northern and Southern
ulpits gave more information to the
eavens about the best mode of settling
MS trouble than was ever used. For
our years both sides tried to get hold of
be Lords thunderbolts, but could not
ute reach them At the breaking out
I.